So many jokes… But lets take this seriously. So far as I can tell this is the only “Fap At Rear Entry” sign in existence. If you’re so inclined you can find this sign near the REI in Issaquah, Wa. Right in between the “Kahhhhn Mongolian Grill” and the “Justify: Just for girls” store. Additionally a quick google search only brings up images that look like they came from this location.

So who or what should, “Fap At Rear Entry”? Well like any good college student my first instinct was to check Wikipedia for FAP. Surprisingly FAP has many meanings including the worst one, Fair Access Policy, also known as Bandwidth capping… But I digress.

Fearing none of these would be useful my eyes set on the last FAP entry, Femto Access Point otherwise known as a Femtocell. I’ll just give you the cliff notes since you have the wiki page right there… Basically, this device hooks into the local interwebs to help boost cellphone coverage in the area. And they said fapping never solved anything.

Oh and I learned a new word from the Wiki page,

Onomatopoeia: one or more words that imitate or suggest the source of the sound they are describing

Also, I like this pic for the “FAP Trouble” Box in the lower right corner of the red box…

So I feel like a rather large heel or whatever other insult is appropriate.
You know that contact me page I have set up on erikpersson.com/about …
Turns out I forgot to set it up to inform me when people actually send me a message. Awesome right?
Anyway to all the people that I haven’t replied to, I apologize, I’m not actually that big an asshole, and I’ll have replies forthcoming…

Here’s something about Facebook I bet you didn’t know.
Apparently all of your uploaded photos are fair game for use by their advertisers, by default. So that image of you where you sorta drank to much at that party last week? Totally fair game to be used for those “Hot Local Singles” or “Clearasil” ads.
Totally awesome, right?
Luckily you can opt out of this “service”, though you’ll have to navigate through a treacherous maze of submenus before you can get a glimpse of the opt out page. Luckily for you I’m here to make your life easier.
Here’s the relevant asshattery quoted from the Facebook page as well as a quick tutorial to opt out of their advertising service.

Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user’s friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules. You may opt out of appearing in your friends’ Facebook Ads below.

Interesting article by Neil Gaiman about writing about characters. Its one of those things that make perfect sense once you read it.

When I was a young writer I would come up with stories, and then put characters into them. And the character would often feel like, in Thurber’s words, “a mere device”.

I think the breakthrough for me came when I started writing comics — because I believed in them. Because sometimes I would be using characters I hadn’t created, but simply cared about. And over the next few years I learned that if you cared enough about a character, what happened to them was interesting.

I’m not sure that’s much of an aphorism, but it’s important to care about them, about who they are and what they do. And (for me) for them to be people I would want to spend time with — I don’t really care who’s side they are on, and they can be monstrous on the outside or, worse, on the inside, but you have to want to spend time with them. If you met one of these characters socially would you talk to them, or make an excuse and flee?

(As a sidenote, I think the years I spent as a journalist doing interviews for magazines really helped as well. I learned a lot about speech patterns, and ways of describing people, and letting their words describe them. But more importantly, I learned that if you are actually interested, and not faking it, people will tell you anything, and you will take pleasure in their company. So talk to people, especially people you would normally avoid talking to. Find out their stories. Figure out how you would put them into stories, if you would, or just describe them with a few words.)Neil Gaiman